Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea from Taiwan
Tea Description:
Da Yu Ling oolong tea (wu-long tea) is a premium-grade oolong tea from the Da Yu Ling area of Taiwan’s Taichung county. Its high altitude (more than 2400 meters) makes this one of the highest tea plantations in the world.
Learn more about this Oolong here.
Taster’s Review:
The website states that this tea was harvested winter 2012, and the package was vacuum sealed to preserve the freshness … and it is evident in the tasting! This tastes really fresh!
I chose to try this tea because I didn’t recognize it as one that I had tried before, but now as I’ve read the entire description on the website, I see that this is a tea that is grown on the Li Shan mountain. I guess that makes it similar (or possibly identical to?) a Li Shan Oolong … but, as I taste it, while I do note some similarities, I note also some striking differences to Li Shan Oolong tea (which I do love, by the way!)
What I notice in this first cup (the combination of my first two infusions, following a quick 15 second rinse) is a very crisp, almost “perfumed-air” quality to the flavor. But not perfumed as in a chemical taste, but more like the air that you might taste if you were in a meadow where orchids and lilies bloom. Imagine what that air that surrounds the meadow might taste like … that is what I taste here. It is quite floral – tasting primarily of orchid, with hints of lily.
It is refreshing and sweet and very enjoyable. There is a gentle creaminess to the cup, not overly buttery or like milk or cream, but something quite similar to that, lighter though, perhaps. There is an undertone of fruit, reminiscent of the apple pear … or what is also known as the Asian Pear. Crisp, sweet and juicy, but also delicate as the Asian Pear is delicate in flavor. Very pleasant.
In subsequent infusions, the flavors become less distinct, as they seem to meld together to offer a sweet, smooth, delightful flavor. It is at once: floral, slightly creamy, vegetative, and sweet. Lovely!
ITFA Global Tea Taster’s Club, August Shipment, Part 3: Organic Gemmai cha
Leaf Type: Green
Produced for the Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations
For More Information, visit the Tea Farms webpage
About ITFA Global Tea Tasters Club:
By subscribing to the Global Tea Tasters Club, you will receive tea from ITFA tea farms 6 times per year. Each time, we will select a different region to feature and as we grow in tea farm members, so will your tea experience.
Your tea will also be accompanied by info about the tea and the tea farms themselves.
To know where your tea is coming from, who has grown and produced it, to taste the difference in teas from around the world…what could be better?
Taster’s Review:
Editor’s Note: I know it is usually spelled “Genmaicha” or “Genmai Cha,” however, the label on the package says Gemmai Cha.
Genmaicha stands out as my first really positive green tea experience. Way back (about 15 years now! yikes!) when I first started drinking tea “seriously” (err… that is, buying and drinking loose leaf tea), I had decided (rather prematurely) that I wasn’t crazy for green tea. Most of what I had tried was bitter. I have since realized that it was my fault because I had not yet learned the proper way to brew green tea. It was about the time that I started learning more about brewing temperatures and steeping time that I tried Genmaicha, and I really enjoyed it.
So I am always happy to receive Genmaicha, and was thrilled to find a package of Genmaicha along with the other teas that I received as part of August’s Shipment for the Global Tea Taster’s Club.
About this Genmaicha:
Obubu’s Genmaicha, or brown rice tea, is made with new leaves harvested in the summer. Instead of regular rice, Obubu uses sweet rice grown locally in the valley of Wazuka, creating a tea with a strong, sweet, toasty flavor and an aroma that fills the room.
While I am enjoying this Genmaicha immensely, I do disagree with the above quote regarding this tea. This has to be one of the lighter Genmaicha teas that I’ve ever tasted. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It is sweet and toasty, and it is very aromatic, but, it doesn’t have the strong flavor that I usually experience with a Genmaicha.
Yes, I do appreciate the strong flavor of a typical Genmaicha, but, I am finding the lightness of this Genmaicha to be very refreshing, and I’m liking it a lot. The green tea tastes fresh and exhilarating. It has a crispness to it, and a moderate amount of cleansing astringency.
The sweet brown rice adds that cozy, comforting toasty flavor, but it doesn’t taste overly roasty-toasty. It is the brown rice flavor where the lightness is especially noticeable. The brown rice isn’t overpowering the flavor of the green tea, which I think is often the case with Genmaicha. With this Genmaicha (Gemmai Cha?) it is the green tea that is celebrated, and not the toasty rice.
A very unexpected yet delicious Genmaicha!
Sencha of the Wind from Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Obubu Tea
Product Description:
A tea popular with female customers in Japan, our Sencha of the Wind or 風の煎茶, is a sencha with a soft sweetness that is perfect for our warm water (sencha espresso) steeping method. Steep it with boiling water though, and surprisingly the tea retains much of its sweetness.
Grown on southeast facing rolling hills at an altitude of 500 meters (1640 feet) and harvested in late May, the cultivation technique is very similar to our Kabuse Sencha. However, in addition to being harvested slightly later than the Kabuse, this tea does not use the Yabukita variety of tea plant (said to be the most suitable for Japanese tea) and is instead cultivated on standard tea plants. The difference is in the leaves as these leaves produce less amino acids than the Kabuse and therefore less bitterness.
Taster’s Review:
This is one of the softest Sencha teas I think I’ve ever encountered. It is like a bit of fresh air – which seems right considering the name of the tea.
The flavor of this tea is very delicate yet refreshing. There is so very little vegetal/grassy taste to this Sencha. It has no bitterness to speak of. It is sweet and possesses a very interesting fruit-like note that hits the palate towards the end of the sip. It tastes smooth and clean, with a pleasant crispness to it. It tastes like the early days of spring to me.
This tea also has a light yet very pleasant mouthfeel. It is just as soft as the flavor, soft and silky. I really enjoyed this tea. Such a unique Sencha!
Genmaicha from Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations
Company Description:
Made with a little bit of luxury, Obubu’s Genmaicha (玄米茶) or Brown Rice Tea is made with 100% Japanese-grown sweet mochi rice combined with our Sencha of the Autumn Moon. The strong, sweet flavor of the roasted brown fills the air as the tea steeps and mixes with the sweetness and bitterness of the sencha to produce a delicious and natural tea.
Taster’s Review:
Genmaicha has been a long time favorite of mine. Even when I wasn’t really digging a lot of green teas (there was a time when I was not as enthusiastic about green teas as I am now), I have always found a good cup of Genmaicha to be very enjoyable.
So when I received this sample of Genmaicha, I was very eager to try it. And I am SO glad that I did! This is a delightful Genmaicha – one of the very best I’ve ever tried.
What makes this one significantly different is the Sencha base that is used. Very often, the green tea used to make a Genmaicha is a Bancha. Now, I like Bancha tea quite a bit, and even though Bancha is actually a lower grade of Sencha, Sencha and Bancha teas taste a bit different. Bancha teas tend to have a natural toasted flavor to them that stands out. While some Sencha teas that I’ve tasted do have a slight roasted/nutty quality to them, it is not as prominent as the toasted note that I get from a Bancha.
And these differences in flavor are significant when it comes to Genmaicha. As it is made by blending green tea with toasted and popped rice, there is a roasty-toasty flavor that is one of the most prominent (and appealing) characteristics of a Genmaicha tea. So, when a Genmaicha is blended using a Bancha, you compound that signature roasty-toasty flavor of the Genmaicha. But when a Genmaicha blend is made using a Sencha, the flavor becomes slightly different… slightly more complex.
The backdrop of this tea is a bittersweet flavor – not bitter … but, as I’ve described on Steepster, it is more like semi-sweet to me. It has a pleasant nuttiness that is accentuated nicely with by the popped rice, which has its own natural sweetness. It is very delicious, pleasantly sweet, and extraordinarily delicious!
Attention Genmaicha fans: this Genmaicha is NOT to be missed!